Bag placer magazine

ABSTRACT

A bag placer magazine such as for feeding flat pleated paper or plastic bags to a bag filling apparatus. The bag magazine accommodates flat pleated bags stacked horizontally on a moveable conveyor platform which circulates around the stacked bags. Bags are removed one at a time from the bottom of the stack. Vacuum operated grippers are sequenced to extend upwardly through sequentially moved openings in the circulating conveyor and pull down an end of the bottom bag and then strip the bottom bag from the stack. The bag falls below the circulating conveyor to a deposit platform where it is indexed to a precise position and then routed to a bag filler station. The bag stack is replenished from the top while bags are being stripped from the bottom so that there is no interruption of the production line process.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention relates to machines for packaging materials suchas insulation, whether compressed or not, and particularly to a magazinefor holding and feeding empty bags to the filler machinery.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Bag placers and magazines are important in the production line ofa packaging operation in which material is inserted into bags. The twocomponents of the finished product, the bag and the material filling thebag, are preferably provided without interruption. The bags may be paperor plastic or other suitable synthetic materials and the fill materialmay likewise be any fill material, although the machine disclosed andclaimed in the present invention is intended for use in a fibrousinsulation production machinery line. The production line normallyincludes conveyors of various types carrying the fill material from itsproduction line, a bag provider machine of some type, a bag opener, abag filler and finally, a filled bag remover. Some of these functionshave heretofore been conducted by hand, such as by a person grabbing orunrolling a bag from a stack, opening it and placing it over a fillerspout. In this manual operation, the worker removes the bag, seals theend and places the bag on an exit conveyor for palettizing or loading ona truck. A goal of automation has been to reduce or eliminate as muchlabor as possible in the process and so machines have been devised tofeed and position empty bags and open them so that they can be filledand thereafter remove the filled bags to storage or shipping facilities.

[0003] A persistent problem in the insulation production line industryhas been the development of a bag magazine/handler/feeder which maycontinually be replenished with bag stock so that the production line isnot halted or even slowed while stock is being replenished. This hasbeen accomplished for roll stock plastic bags, but for bags which areprovided in a flat pleated stack, there has heretofore been littlemachinery available in which the bag stack may be replenished withoutmomentarily stopping the production line.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The objects of the present invention are:

[0005] a) to provide a bag placer magazine which effectively deliversbags to a filler station with high reliability;

[0006] b) to provide such a bag placer magazine in which the bags can bereplenished during operation and without interruption of the processline;

[0007] c) to provide such a bag placer magazine which is safe andreliable in operation and is particularly suitable for the intendedpurpose.

[0008] Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following description taken in connection with thedrawings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] The present invention provides a bag placer magazine whichaccommodates flat pleated bags stacked horizontally on a moveableconveyor platform which circulates around the stacked bags and removesthe bags one at a time from the bottom of the stack. Vacuum operatedgrippers are sequenced to extend upwardly through sequentially movedopenings in the circulating conveyor, pull down an end of a bottom bagand then strip the bottom bag from the stack. The bag falls below thecirculating conveyor to a deposit platform where the bag is indexed to aprecise position and then routed to a bag filler station. The bag stackis replenished from the top while bags are being stripped from thebottom so that the flow of the production line is not interrupted.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010]FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a bag placer magazineembodying the present invention.

[0011]FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of the bag placer magazine.

[0012]FIG. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of a detail of the bagplacer magazine.

[0013]FIGS. 4 through 9 are partial schematic views showing operationalsequence of the bag placer magazine to strip a bag from a stack of bagsin the magazine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

[0014] In the following, the characteristics, advantages and specialfeatures of the invention will be described in connection with theaccompanying drawings which show an example of an arrangement forstacking and dispensing bags to a filling station. The followingdisclosure is to be taken as exemplary only and the invention is notlimited to the specific form disclosed following except insofar asprovided in the claims of the invention.

[0015] The reference numeral 1, FIG. 1, generally indicates a bag placermagazine embodying the present invention. The bag placer magazine 1 isintended to be part of a production line which has associated machineryincluding a conveyor to convey fill material, a bag opener, a bagplacer, a bag filler, a bag closer/sealer, and an exit conveyor. None ofthese other units are shown in the drawings or described in detailherein, as their general configuration and use can be readily understoodby one having ordinary skill in the bag filling art.

[0016] The bag placer magazine 1 includes a support frame 2 whichpositions operational components of the magazine 1 at a heightcoincident with the height of conveying apparatus in the productionline. In the illustrated example, the support frame 2 consists ofopposite pairs of legs 3 and 4 joined by crossbars set forth following.The bag placer magazine 2 is powered by electric and pneumatic means andhas an electric motor 6 mounted on a cross bar 7. The support frame 2contains a moveable circulating conveyor platform 9 which, when viewedfrom the side relationship of FIG. 1, travels around a rectangulartrack. The moveable circulating conveyor platform 9 is a roller conveyor10 which travels around a track in a vertically oriented rectangulararrangement. To support the conveyor platform 10, the support frame 2extends upwardly in continuations of the legs 3 and 4 and includes a topcross bar 11 and a mid level cross bar 12.

[0017] The moveable conveyor platform 9, although in this embodiment isa roller conveyor, may be formed of other types of moveable surfaces.The moveable platform 9 runs in a track 13 around the perimeter of theupper portion of the support frame as shown in FIG. 1 and importantlyhas a series of large openings 14, FIG. 1 such as four openings 14spaced equidistantly along its length. The moveable conveyor platform 9is powered by a drive belt 16 and a sprocketed drive shaft 17 located ata remote end 18 of the bag placer magazine 1 so that the conveyoropenings 14 are sequenced to register with operating machinery locatedat a bag separating end 20 of the bag magazine 1. In addition to thesprocketed drive shaft 17, idler shafts 21 and 22 are mounted at uppercorners and a final idler shaft 23 is positioned at the bag separatingend 20. The idler shaft 23 is situated slightly below the level of themoveable conveyor platform 9. The moveable conveyor platform 9 runs in atrack 13 which extends in the aforementioned generally verticallyoriented rectangle. In the area of the bag separating end 20, the track13 extends downwardly below the level of the cross bar 12 and forms anangular extension 25 from the final idler shaft 23 to the horizontalportion of the track 13 running along the mid level cross bar 12.

[0018] The area of the bag placer magazine 1 atop the mid level crossbar 12 forms a bag stacking area 30 in which a stack 31 of bags ispositioned. The bag stack 31 is supported by one of four rollercontinuous lengths 33 of the moveable conveyor platform 9 as it rollsaround the track 13. As shown in FIG. 2, each one of the rollercontinuous lengths 33 when in proper registration, generally extends thefull length of the machine 1.

[0019] The bags generally come in a variety of lengths typically from36″ to 72″, multiple widths are commonly available, typically from 16″to 24″. The bag magazine 1 is adjustable to accommodate the multiplewidths. For this purpose, a side guide 35 is slide mounted against oneof the frame sides and is adjustable to align the bag stack 31 withholding stops (not shown) opposite the side guide 35.

[0020] Individual bags are removed one at a time from the bottom of thebag stack 31. To accomplish this, the bag magazine 1 utilizes a systemof holding heads and tilting heads in combination with the moveableconveyor platform 9, which indexes as the bottom bag is being held tostrip the bottom bag from the stack 31. A pair of holding heads 38 arepaddle-like in form and are perforated to provide a suction airway.Appropriate conduit 39 connects the holding heads 38 to a pneumaticsuction system. The holding heads 38 are positioned under the spacedcorners of the end of the bag stack 31 and under the bottom bag.Positioned inwardly of the holding heads 38 are tilting heads 42 whichare mounted on an arm 43 pivotally mounted about an axle 44 and rotatedby a lever 45 swung by a retraction of a pneumatic cylinder 46. Thetilting heads 42 are connected by appropriate conduit 48 to thepneumatic suction system. The holding heads 38 and tilting heads 42 arevariable in position to accommodate different width bags by means of anadjustment wheel 50 which when rotated drives a screw 51 to move theholding heads 38 and tilting heads 42 respectfully together inward oroutward of the machine centerline.

[0021] As shown in FIGS. 1 & 2, the operation of the holding heads 38and tilting heads 42 are sequenced in combination with the indexing ofthe moveable conveyor platform 9 to grip and drop a bag 32 from thestack of bags 31 to a bag positioning table 54 located underneath themoveable conveyor platform 9 and the bag stack 31. In the sequence ofoperation, the tilting heads 42 pivot back under the bag stack 31 andvacuum is routed to the tilting heads 42 to grip and peel the bottommostbag 32 from the stack. Vacuum is turned off from the holding heads 38 toreduce their grip on the bottom bag 32. Vacuum produced in the tiltingheads 42 wraps the corners of the bag around the tilting head 42 and(FIG. 4) the holding heads 38 raise up in the space left by the bottombag edges being pulled downwardly to support the second bag from thebottom of the stack (FIG. 5). The tilting heads 42 tip forwardly pullingthe end of the bottom bag downwardly through the opening 14 of themoveable conveyor platform 9 (FIG. 6). The moveable conveyor platform 9cycles one complete index space to cause the leading roller of the nextroller continuous length 33 to peel the remainder of the bottom bag 32from under the stack 31 (FIG. 7). This drops the entire bottom bag 32 onthe bag positioning table 54 (FIG. 8). Next, vacuum is turned off in thetilting heads 42 and the tilting heads tip back upwardly under theremainder of the stack 31. A forward indexer 60 such as pneumaticallyoperated, slides the bag to the front edge of the bag positioning table54 (FIG. 9), operating a photo electric switch 61. Vacuum is then turnedoff on the forward indexer 60 and a side indexer 62 pneumatically movesacross the table to move the bag 32 to a set position at a predeterminedside of the positioning table 54 in machine 1. Thereafter, the sideindexer 62 returns to home position and the cycle recommences.

[0022] Although an embodiment of the bag placer magazine 1 has beenillustrated and disclosed herein, the invention is not to be limited tothe exemplary embodiment disclosed except insofar as set forth in thefollowing claims.

What is claimed and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is:
 1. Amagazine for storing and feeding bags comprising: a) a platformreceiving a stack of horizontally laid, pleated bags, said stack beingrefillable from a top thereof; b) a traveling opening in said platformwhich is registrable under an end of a bottom bag of said stack of bags;c) a gripper extensible through said traveling opening when saidtraveling opening registers under the end of said bottom bag, saidgripper holding the end of said bottom bag and pulling same downwardlythrough said traveling opening; and d) a stripper portion of saidplatform movable with said traveling opening and operable to strip andseparate said bottom bag from said stack for transport to a fillerapparatus.
 2. The magazine set forth in claim 1 wherein said platform isa bed of rollers conveyable around said stack of bags.
 3. The magazineset forth in claim 2 wherein said traveling opening is formed by a gapbetween selected said rollers.
 4. A bag feeder magazine for storing anddispensing bags from a stack thereof, said magazine comprising: a)structure mounting a movable platform having a traveling openingtherethrough selectively registrable with a loading end of saidstructure, said structure being accessible for a worker to place ahorizontal stack of flat pleated bags on said platform with bag endstoward said loading end and to refill said stack from its top; b)suction grippers timed to extend through said traveling opening whensaid traveling opening registers with said loading end, said suctiongrippers adhering to a bottom bag on the stack of bags and retracting topull the end of said bottom bag through said traveling opening; c) saidmovable platform having a stripper portion separating the bottom bagfrom the stack of bags as said movable platform moves the travelingopening from registration with said loading end; and d) transportstructure moving said bottom bag, now separated from said stack, to bagfiller apparatus.
 5. The bag feeder magazine set forth in claim 4wherein said movable platform extends upwardly in a loop around an upperend of said structure and providing an opening in said loop to load saidbags in a stack from a top of said stack.
 6. The bag feeder magazine setforth in claim 4 wherein said stripper portion is a leading edge of saidmovable opening in said platform which moves between the bottom bag anda remainder of said stack of bags to deposit the bottom bag separatedfrom said stack as said platform moves.
 7. The bag feeder magazine setforth in claim 5 wherein said movable platform contains a plurality ofsaid movable openings.
 8. A method for stripping a bottom bag from astack of bags comprising: a) establishing a stack of horizontally laidpleated bags on a platform, said stack being refillable from the top; b)moving the platform until an opening in the platform registers under theend of the bottom bag; c) moving a gripper member inwardly through theopening in the platform, gripping the bag end and pulling the bagoutwardly through the opening in the platform; d) stripping the bottombag from the stack of bags; and e) transferring the separated bottom bagto a bag filler apparatus.
 9. A bag feeder magazine for storing anddispensing bags from a stack thereof, said magazine comprising: a)structure mounting a movable platform having a traveling openingtherethrough selectively registrable with a loading end of saidstructure, said structure being accessible for a worker to place ahorizontal stack of flat pleated bags on said platform with bag endstoward said loading end and to refill said stack from its top; b)suction grippers timed to extend through said traveling opening whensaid traveling opening registers with said loading end, said suctiongrippers adhering to a bottom bag on the stack of bags and retracting topull the end of said bottom bag through said traveling opening; c) saidmovable platform having a stripper portion separating the bottom bagfrom the stack of bags as said movable platform moves the travelingopening from registration with said loading end; d) an indexer forpositioning said bag on said movable platform; and e) transportstructure moving said bottom bag, now separated from said stack, to bagfiller apparatus.